Anonymous Donor
Virginia Commonwealth University means a lot to one particular alum of the School of Business. A recent donor who prefers to remain anonymous, the alum is grateful to the school for helping him become the first person in his family to attend college.
Though his parents didn’t attend college, they were passionate about education, he says.
“My mom and dad had not gone to college but they were both readers,” he says. “They encouraged me and my siblings to do everything we could. It was very clear that going to college was not an ‘if’ but a ‘when.’”
Their encouragement paid off. The donor and all his siblings graduated from college.
His parents helped him and all of his siblings as much as they could financially but they could not fully fund multiple college tuitions. So, he worked 25-30 hours a week while attending VCU full time and received scholarships. He was able to graduate debt-free.
After graduating, he went on to a fulfilling career in the field he majored in. He retired after more than 40 years in his industry.
He often discussed the importance of a quality education with his friends. He valued his access to an excellent education at an affordable public university, which left him fully equipped for a career in his field.
“Some have this notion that people are ‘self-made,’ but nobody makes it totally on their own,” he says. “Everybody has some help along the way and some kind of guidance. I had an absolutely wonderful experience with my professors, and the things I learned at VCU set me up for success in my career.”
This donor wanted to make sure that VCU students and prospective students had the same opportunity that he did. Working with the planned giving team at VCU, he set up a planned gift to create a scholarship fund in his parents’ names. Later, he set up a charitable gift annuity to enhance his support for the scholarship. He was eager to take advantage of another opportunity to give.
A charitable gift annuity is established with a contract that guarantees a gift from the donor to VCU or one of its affiliated foundations. VCU then issues regular, fixed payments to the donor or one or two beneficiaries for life. When the contract ends, the remainder of the gift goes to the university. Charitable gift annuities can be set up with a gift of cash, stock, or even, with some limitations, a qualified distribution from an IRA account.
“I’m not a tax accountant or anything, but it sounds like a win-win situation to me,” this donor says. “It was perfect for me. I could transfer a little bit of my IRA funds into a charitable gift annuity and receive guaranteed income for life. In the end, I plan on the funds going to VCU anyway.”
The donor is driven by a love for VCU. He believes in strong public universities and wants to attract the best talent while keeping VCU accessible to students in difficult financial situations. The scholarship that his planned gift will fund supports high-performing students with financial need.
“If I can take part of what I’ve accumulated in my life and use it to help the future generations of students, I think that is a good thing to do,” he says. “I hope it encourages those top-performing students who struggle to afford college and makes it a little bit easier for them than it was for me. Because everyone should have the opportunity to experience VCU. The classes I took there changed my life and the way I look at the world.”
